Bexar Dems OK half-million-dollar voter campaign

Updated 10:44 pm, Thursday, August 9, 2012

Bexar County Democrats approved a plan this week to launch a half-million-dollar campaign to improve the party's voter turnout in the fall, after a dismal showing in 2010.

“Together, we will stand up for our Democratic Party values and together we will win in November,” newly elected party Chairman Manuel Medina, the plan's author, said Tuesday in his presentation to a packed Luby's Cafeteria dining room.

According to a plan summary, the party aims to raise about $526,000 for the coordinated campaign that would be run by Medina, without pay. It would spend about $107,000 on various call center services, such as polling and voter contact.

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A key party activist, Ian Straus, said Medina promised he would not use his Panama-based call center company.

However, the resolution approved by the Bexar County Democratic Party's Executive Committee includes no such prohibition and states that “contracts will be recommended by the campaign manager,” Medina's title under the plan.

A committee, whose membership has yet to be determined, would have to sign off on recommendations.

“Manuel told me point-blank that he's not going to make any money off of this, at all,” said Christian Archer, a prominent Democratic strategist.

Archer said he gave Medina general advice about how to put together a coordinated campaign, but added that Medina's actions could open the door for critics.

Medina explained that he devised the plan with contributions from elected stakeholders, activists and candidates running for office but individuals involved in the process have disputed the level of input members actually had.

“We made some recommendations to him before he presented it, but I believe he was pretty far advanced down that road before he got our recommendations,” said Straus, who co-chairs the county party's Campaign Committee.

On Monday, Medina said: “There is no formal plan yet. There is no (dollar) amount yet.” He said that he wasn't making a presentation Tuesday. Instead he would be “thanking our outgoing chair for the work she has done to get our party moving in the right direction.”

Party members say Medina approached them with a presentation for his a few weeks before the vote to approve it, including a meeting in July at the Plaza Club that he described as informal.

“There were no presentations, there were no formal introductions,” Medina said. “It was simply a get-together of Democratic Party leaders who wish to win in November.”

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When pressed, he said he had showed a PowerPoint, but denied it amounted to a presentation. Some who were present for the July gathering recall a more detailed presentation.

“I was real impressed with the statistics he had,” said 131st District Court Judge John Gabriel, who added that Medina provided a breakdown of where the Republican and Democratic areas of the city are and where they should focus any coordinated voter turnout effort in the fall campaign.

Others said Medina raised the possibility of running such a coordinated campaign outside of the Bexar County Democratic Party through a political action committee.

Several of the judicial candidates spoke out against the idea, saying it could violate the state's election code, which places strict limits on the sorts of political contributions judicial campaigns can make, said Stephen Smith, a candidate for the 386th District Court, who was at the meeting.

Gabriel said he liked many of the ideas Medina had, but doubted the coordinated campaign could be effective.

“I think it's too late to do much for this election,” he said.

Voters in November will cast ballots for the U.S. president, U.S. Senate, congressional races, state House and Senate races as well as a series of local contests.